Band of Outsiders

It was a lot like life. The Resort collection Scott Sternberg showed in Florence last night underlined a natural evolution from tomboy to woman. The innate cool of the collection was equally, inadvertently underlined by the way the models kept their composure as Sternberg's troupe of local dancers capered furiously around them. A white blouse matched with a full skirt in dégradé gingham had more than enough prairie propriety to balance out a thigh-high ruched skirt and black leather jacket. Sternberg has still never seen a shirt he doesn't want to chastely close to the very top button, but he seemed intrigued by the racy edge of womanhood with this collection—or perhaps that was just the black leather pencil skirt and shorts scored with zippers. (The Band girl wearing the latter had, after all, defused them with a hoodie from her Band boy's closet.) Still, a brick red sweater dress could, on the right bod, start a heat wave. Sternberg also utilized the kind of banding effect that body-con king Hervé Léger built a business on back in the nineties. Manolo Blahnik's peep-toe pump/skating boot hybrids simultaneously said sport and sex appeal. Band in a nutshell.